Century Pacific Signs Partnership with Friends of Hope for Coconut Replanting Initiative

Century Pacific Food Inc. (CNPF), through its coconut manufacturing arm Century Pacific Agricultural Ventures Inc. (CPAVI), has signed a partnership with Friends of Hope to donate quality seedlings to smallholder coconut farmers, enabling the planting of coconut trees and the replacement of non-fruit-bearing senile ones in South Central Mindanao. In addition to expanding long-term coconut supply in the region, planting the coconut trees will sequester about 416,680 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions over the next eight years.  As a result, CNPF’s coconut subsidiary aims to be “carbon-neutral” by 2028.
 
Under the partnership, CPAVI will provide coconut farmers 100,000 coconut seedlings a year for the next five years, with Friends of Hope overseeing their distribution to farmer families and ensuring that the seedlings are given the proper care.  Friends of Hope, a non-profit organization with expertise in coconut-based farming systems, as well as growing coconuts and other intercrops, has reached almost 10,000 farmers since its establishment in 2012.  It has been providing the farmers access to better seedlings, facilitated end-to-end training on coconut and intercrop production, and helped reduce costs by linking farmers directly to markets. The joint initiative will expand long-term coconut supply in South Central Mindanao and help provide additional income to some 16,000 families in the area.  As its need for the coconut raw material rises, CPAVI also plans to onboard partner farmers as suppliers, giving them market access for their products. 
 
Through wholly owned subsidiary CPAVI, CNPF entered the coconut business initially as an integrated manufacturer of high-value coconut products for exports, in line with its pivot towards manufacturing healthier products.  Its entry into the category began with an ongoing long-term contract with a leading global coconut brand. Since then, the company has diversified into other high-value coconut categories such as desiccated coconut, virgin coconut oil, coconut flour, and coconut milk –exporting these various locally sourced and Philippine-made products to the world. Recently, the company also signed a long-term contract exporting coconut products to the Linaco Group, a leading regional coconut producer headquartered in Malaysia.